A limited petroleum fuel, particularly gasoline is widely used for an internal combustion engine and other industrial engines. However, the petroleum fuel of this kind is disadvantageous in the fact that harmful gases such as carbon oxides(CO.sub.X), volatile hydrocarbon (H.sub.X C.sub.Y), sulfur oxides (SO.sub.X) and nitrogen oxides (NO.sub.X) are exhausted, when the fuel is subjected to combustion.
Accordingly, an alternate fuel, for example, a methanol or ethanol containing fuel has been developed to reduce harmful gaseous emissions, and recently utilized for a low pollution car and industrial engines. Methanol fuel can contribute to the reduction of air pollution caused by gaseous emissions. However, when methanol fuel is used in, for example, the internal combustion engine mounted in a motor-car, it is difficult that an inherent heat efficiency of the internal combustion engine is maintained, since a heating value of the methanol fuel is about 50% of the heating value of gasoline. Accordingly, a travel distance of the motor-car using this fuel is reduced to about 50%. In addition, methanol fuel is associated with another problem that it may require a whole modification, or a completely new design of the internal combustion engine for efficient combustion of the fuel.
Ethanol fuel can also contribute to the reduction of air-pollution in the same manner as methanol fuel. However, it has a lower stream pressure. That is, when the fuel of 100% ethanol is used for the internal combustion engine of the motor-car, the motor-car cannot smoothly be started. In addition, since ethanol is also a limited substance, it is difficult to supply a sufficient amount of ethanol for this application in a constant manner. This is also a serious problem.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for producing a low-pollution fuel including alcohol as a main component, which can contribute to the reduction of air-pollution.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for producing a low-pollution fuel including alcohol as a main component, which can sufficiently be supplied to the market.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for producing a low-pollution fuel composition including alcohol as a main component, which can exhibit a heat value substantially equal to gasoline, and which enables a gasoline motor-car to run substantially the same distance as in the case that the motor-car uses without any major modification of an internal combustion engine mounted therein.